AC infinity white wire is a TACH output (not ground).
Hey guys thank you for this information. I just got an AC Infinitiy 10" fan and did some testing on it and I want to share a couple things.
Red is +10VDC out
Black is ground
Yellow is the control input. You can give it 10V PWM (like the factory remote control) but it also accepts a 0-10V analog control. I was able to control it with nothing more than a 5K potentiometer. A cool thing about this is that it should allow the use of off-the-shelf proportional thermostats eg Honeywell TB7980.
The white wire it a tachometer output that can be used to monitor the RPM of the fan. You must provide an external pull-up resistor (eg 10K to +5V) to see the signal. It is not a ground! If you watch this on a scope you will see a frequency, presumably indicating RPM directly, that varies with the fan speed.
Tying the white wire to ground isn't going to hurt anything but it doesn't provide a ground connection, either. Only the black is ground.
I'm stoked about this fan. It's nice to have something with many options for how to control it.
Sean, have you tried either the Leviton ZS057-D0Z Zigbee Dimmer or Zooz Zen54 zWave 0-10V dimmer with these fans? I have not poked around with these in a while, but pretty sure connecting the ground on the 0-10V controllers to ground (black) on the fan controller did not work for me.
That said, the Terrabloom blue wire is a tach signal, so it makes sense that the AC Infinity white serves the same function.
No I don't have one of those dimmers. So that's puzzling. Maybe I should get one.
What I want to do is balance the temperature between two rooms, so I want to run the fan slow when there's a small temperature difference, and fast when there is a big temperature difference. So I was going to do this using a ControlByWeb product and some 1-wire temp sensors.
I'll play around a bit here...I have an extra Zen54 and a few AC fans. I've standardised pretty much any temp sensing for our pool control and HRV system on Fibaro Smart Implants which each can host up to six DS18B20 (inexpensive!) temp sensors.
@sean97702 , I switched over the Leviton 0-10 Volt ground wire to the AC infinity black and yep..it works, and actually works correctly now. I have a 4" and 6" fan working in my HRV project. Previously the speeds would change with 0-10V changes, but the adjustment stopped at about 30%. Now the speed works as it should, with 99 steps of change from barely on, to full speed. Not sure how I missed that but likely was hesitant to experiment and toast a controller.
The other issue with the 0-10v Leviton dimmer ground connected to the AC Infinity tach signal wire is that at lower speed settings I could hear the fan wandering slightly...makes sense if you consider that the Leviton 0-10V dimmer was not seeing a correct ground signal.
I've corrected my post with a credit here to you...thanks!
I fired up the thread specifically as there was next to nothing out there about automating these 0-10V EC fans, other than from Terrabloom. It looks like they all use pretty much the same control scheme. Our HRV uses two EC fans with four balanced ventilation profiles and inline heaters..all possible because of the 0-10V automation options provided by Leviton and Zooz.
Our Inline EC kitchen exhaust fan is also automated and varies speed based on the induction cooktop power use, using the Zooz Zen54 and an Aeotec 220V (power monitoring) Zwave switch.
The first time I heard of 0-10V signaling is when I was looking at variable dampers. You can do a proportional restriction of the airflow from your central HVAC. It's actually a fantastic solution for adding zoning to "smart" systems that don't support it in a nice way (eg Nest or the high-end Lennox stats). This would be called "standalone VAV zoning" and there are stats from Honeywell and damper motors by Belimo that let you do this.
You have two options with those, they can be either 0-10V (absolute signaling) or they can operate on timed pulses to indicate some amount relative to the current position.
So, 0-10V seems to be kind of an emerging standard. It seems like a nice way to do things for airflow control, whether we are talking about fans or dampers.
A variable damper is another great application for the Zooz Zen54 0-10V controller run by Hubitat. I haven't seen this done yet. 0-10v dampers have been around for some time in the commercial world.
One of the challenges of ventilating via HRV/ERV is getting CO2 levels down in rooms at night, while having fresh air in the living spaces during the day. With a dedicated ducted system, controlling a damper that increases flow to bedrooms at night, by directing it way from vacant living spaces would be an easy project via 0-10V. This in turn would allow one to lower the overall ventilation rate (a good thing in very cold climates) while targeting fresh air where it's needed the most.
Hey @Kyl. I'm a novice looking for a solution to control a Fantech RVF6XL EC Ext kitchen exhaust fan, wirelessly. I have a zwave capable alarm panel and a Phillips hue hub, but like you am not a Hubitat user. I live in the northeast US, where it goes below 30F, so I need something on the fan side that is weatherproof. I'm fine with RF, as I don't need it to be "smart", but can't seem to find anything rated for outdoor fans. Any help would be appreciated!
I think you're going to be hard pressed to find a solutino with 0-10V dimming that you can automate, aside from the Levition or Zooz products I linked to in the first post. To control these, you are going to need a hub that would support them. Hubitat has worked very well with these devices. As far as cold, I'd just locate the device inside and run the low voltage control wires to the fan outside.
If you just want to control the fan and a dumb switch is ok, use this: https://www.aartech.ca/dd710-bdz The Fantech wires likely match up with the information in this thread:
Great thread and motivation. With a ZEN54, TerraBloom ECMF-200, some new duct, and an Awair Element; CO2 problems in the bedroom have been resolved energy efficiently. An itchy but satisfying project.
William, glad you found the information useful. These two 0-10v products have enabled quite a few advancements in my own HVAC and kitchen exhaust automations. Can you add any details on your installation? Someone will find it useful down the line I'm sure.
How is the noise level of the 8" fan? I have not tried that one yet from Terrabloom.
Are you ramping the fan speed based on CO2 or just on/off?
The 8 inch turns out to be larger than needed for my purposes. I was focusing on input/output duct sizes not how much air the fan moved when I ordered it, and might get the 6 inch were I to do it again-- not sure. My application is just a jumper duct from one room to a hallway where the return air is (no fresh air from outside -- not needed for me at present).
Sound is low at 10% speed (it doesn't run at lower rates or I would use lower speeds). The insulated duct is 10 feet long and the fan is in the middle about 3 feet up from the bedroom vent (some sound is absorbed by the duct). I also have the fan wrapped in insulation because it is in a hot attic (which likely helps with some sound transmission). The sound is mostly air movement, but there is very slight hum. I'm sensitive to shrilly hums and this doesn't bother me till ~20%. I run an air filter at night for allergens and can't even hear the duct fan with the air filter running. Terrabloom sells silenced units with insulation. Tips: 1) I started with metal straps, but switched to the big HVAC tie-wraps -- both for securing the ducts (in addition to tape) and suspending the unit). 2) I'm sensitive to fumes and ran the fan inline with the duct for about two week before cutting the holes and connecting (lots of out gassing from the duct in the attic instead of the house). 3) Have lots of the foil tape to seal around your ducts in addition to the tie wraps. 4) I'd recommend a routine to turn it off if a fire is detected.
I'm just doing on/off based on CO2 at 10% speed presently. I plan on doing a little ramping for temperature differentials in the house at night. That might enable me to keep the house a degree or two warmer in the summer (by keeping heat buildup in the bedroom lower). In the southwest its all about cooling. Might stave off my desire to put a mini-split in the bedroom (certainly more cost/energy efficient).
Are you exhausting, or supplying fresh air to the room? If you're bringing fresh air in, you may want to do some filtration on your supply. I can give you some ideas for that if you'd like as well.
The AC Infinity EC fans in the 6" size move a lot of air and are quieter than the 6" Terrabloom I am using.
You can do nested IF THEN statement to ramp based on a few different conditions. In my case I'm looking for high radon and VOC levels as well. Mostly the system ramps on CO2. The reason I'm activating scenes is that the HRV has one fan for supply, and one for return. At each CFM rating, they run at different speeds determined by balancing at the HRV for each CFM range. Each scene has the dimmer settings for the fans that correspond with 50, 60, 75, 90, 100 and 110 CFM. It works extremely well. I'm also averaging Co2 values from the three floors and saving that in a variable, hence the references to "Variable_average_Co2"...that's the average of the three sensors on each floor.
You can also ramp on an equation which I'm doing for the HRV heaters...it's much more elegant once you establish a relationship between Co2 and desired dimmer (0-10V) values you want to set the fan speed.
I'm also setting the fan speed for the kitchen exhaust hood based on power use from the induction cooktop..again, simple equation, although a bit clunky via rule machine:
Very impressive. I think I'll use a variable average like that for temperature.
I have not needed outside air yet. I have leaky 1930s bungalow and that bedroom is the only problem (it drifts down to ~525 ppm when not in use). More outside air exchange could be good at getting rid of indoor pollutants (probably timed for least energy impact).
I have DC motor industrial ceiling fans in my stable over the stalls, and I'd like to replace the stock control switches with something that can connect to my hubitat to automate them based on temperature.
The Zooz ZEN54 looks like it would be suitable, but the connections on my fans are direct to the motor and the ZEN54 doesn't output M+ and M-.
Does anyone know of a device I could run the ZEN54 into that would convert the power and signal into an M+ and M- output?
